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Eroticism
Ι Literature A. Introduction Sexual desire is one of the main subjects of ancient literature. Its representation in Greek and Roman texts includes a range of motifs (e.g. the → ekphrasis of the lover or the → paraklausithyron) which can also be found in the literature of the Near East (cf. the Song of Songs) and Egypt. Whether these congruencies are based on transcultural transfers or rather on parallel developments can usually not be determined. Since constructs of desire and love (if not also these feelings themselves) are dependent on traditional patterns and social conventions of individual cultures, the forms of the literary representations of → eros (eptoc,, Epoc.) or amor are also stylised to a high degree: they use familiar metaphors (e.g. fire, injury) and, time and again, refer to a few 'classical' texts. Thus, for example, → Sappho was soon established as the female erotic poet par excellence (although almost the entire erotic literature of antiquity emanates from male authors). This literary stylizing of eroticism does not mean a lack of imagination and neither merely the realisation that desire is just as universal as it is unique when experienced by each person; rather, the 'classical' texts contributed to the cultural interpretation of eroticism. Therefore, literary representations of eros I amor are actually normative and potentially didactic. They defy categorization according to genre or time of origin; descriptions of amor in Latin literature are strongly influenced by Greek models, for example. The physical aspects of eroticism and sexuality can be found in the relevant genres, described in a very direct language: in iambic poetry (→ Hipponax; Catullus; Horace, 'Epodes'), in the Old → Comedy, in epigrams ( → Martialis; carmina → Priapea), in → satire and in some novels (→ Lollianus; Apuleius). The genres of high literature (epic, lyric poetry, rhetoric) avoid clear obscenities (such as βινειν, binein; futuere, etc.) and refer to the sex drive and sex act with circumlocutions and euphemisms. The actual erotica of ancient literature encompass a range from crude sexuality of, e.g., the → mimos (cf. e.g. Herodas 5) to the highly refined pornography of the → Second Sophistic where even the sexual act itself becomes a theme of scholarly debate (cf. Ps. Lucian Erotes; Ach.Tat. 2.3 5-38), and to (40) the burlesque voyeurism in Nonnus' Dionysiaka. The Latin poetry of late antiquity (Anthologia Latina, the → Pervigilium Veneris or → Maximianus' elegies) includes particularly numerous erotic themes and thus anticipates the medieval lyric tradition. B. The nature of Eros In archaic epics, eros (etymology unknown) is associated with any physical pleasure or a need to be satisfied (hunger, thirst, lament etc.); in the sexual area, eros is the sudden, urgent desire by a man to unite with a particular woman, which is normally triggered by the sight of her beauty (cf. Horn. II. 3,441-446; 14,312- 338; 16,181-186; Horn. Od. i8,2iif.; Horn. h. Aphrod. 144-154). 'Love at first sight', a frequent but not altogether universal motif of ancient literature, is a later expression of this concept, primarily in narrative texts: eros radiates from the eyes of the beautiful person and attacks the victim through his eyes (e.g. Ach.Tat. 1,9,4). Since the beginnings of archaic lyric poetry, this motif of being overpowered can also be found in a ped- erastic context. Eros banishes all caution and reason (vooc,, noos; <(>pev£c,, phrenes; cf. PI. Phdr. *38b-c; Theophr. fr. 115: "Eoioc. be ioriv AXoyioxov tivoc. ImOuuiac uJtEp0oA.r|, 'Eros is an excess of irrational desire') as well as any normal perception: lovers are proverbially blind vis-avis the faults of the loved one (cf. e.g. PI. Leg.5,73ie5f.). Eros causes deep distress and the loss of self-control (uovia, mania; otoroog, oistros etc.,cf. Iby- cus, PMG 186: eros as a storm): it is an involuntary compulsion (dvavxt), andnke; cf. PI. Phdr. i40c-e; Xen. Cyr. 5,1,12) from which an escape is only possible occasionally. Love is never an unalloyed pleasure (cf. Sappho fr. 130: yXuxujuxoov dudxavov opjtetov, 'the bittersweet, untamable animal'). For that reason and because the intrusion of eros indicates a lack of something (the missing 'other') which is necessary for happiness, the concept of love is pitted against the favoured idea of self-reliance and independence (afrtdpxeia, autdrkeia) of the individual. This latter concept is dissolved by eros (the 'limb-loosening', λυσψελης, lysi-meles) (cf. Hes. Theog. 121, Sappho fr. 130) in that he makes free men into 'slaves' no longer capable of making decisions (cf. the servitium amoris of Roman -» elegies). Since eros cannot be controlled, it operates outside social institutions and norms, andactually against them (cf. Soph. Ant. 781-800). Thus, for example, the eros felt by Paris for Helena characterizes his 'marriage' to her as a transgression (cf. Phaedra's eros for her stepson Hippolytus and Apul. Met. 4,30, 4: omnium matrimonia corrumpens, 'love spoils the marriage of all'). Since eros corrodes body and mind, it is often represented as a disease (voooc., nosos, Latin pestis) and described in quasi-medical language (cf . the initial scene of Hippolytus by Euripides). The search for a remedy (φαρμακον, pharmakon) threads its way through the whole of ancient literature (e.g. Theoc. 1 1,Catull. 76, Ov. Rem. am., Longus 2,7,7). Here, the power of eros appears similar to the ambivalent gifts of Dionysus (for this ambiguity cf. Anacreon PMG 376: ueoutov £oom, 'drunk with love'; Eur. Hipp. 525-544; Eur. Med. 627- 34; Eur. IA 543-557). Both are often mentioned together (cf. Anacreon PMG 357; Eur. Bacch. 402-416), primarily in the social context of the ->symposium. Amongst the most impressive records of the idea of eros as a painful obsession are the subliterary magic spells fromlate Hellenism and the Imperial period, many of which have remained intact on Egyptian papyri: with the aid of love spells, men attemptto arouse mad lust in the desired woman: 'Make love me with gut-consuming passion (ερωτι σπλαγχνικω) ... When she wants to sleep, place thorns under her and barbs on her brow' (PGM 36,149-153). Such violent and often sadistic fantasies reveal the extreme form of a specifically male projection of eroticism onto women who were regarded regarded as emotionally more unstable than men and thus were regarded as being especially vulnerable to the attacks of eros (just as to being seized by Dionysus, cf. the Maenads, -» Mainades). In satirical literature, this attitude is crystallized in the image of the sex-obsessed woman (e.g. Aristoph. Lys.; Juv. 6). Women thus require strong social control; the 'works of Aphrodite' are placed in antithesis to those of Athena (weaving and other domestic crafts), the true female area of activity (cf. Horn. h. Aphrod. 1-1 5; Hor. Carm. The destructive potential of female desire was already recognized in classical Greek literature, most of all in Attic tragedies (cf. also Gorg. Helena 1 5-19), and used as a literary theme. But, especially from Hellenistic and Roman times, there are (from the pen ofmale authors) detailed descriptions of the psychological and physical suffering of women seized by eroslamor (Theoc. 2; Apoll. Rhod. 3-4; Dido in Vergil; Ovids He- roides etc.) C. Tamed Eroticism Two of the literary strategies used to tame this dangerous power deserve special consideration: A series of prose texts predominantly from the 4th cent. BC channel pederastic eroticism into socially or philosophically productive avenues by emphasizing, as the elegies of ->• Theognis had done before, their educational function in teaching dpeir| (arete, 'virtue') (cf. Xen. Symp. 8; Ps. Demosth. Erotikos).Typical in them is the distinction between the 'heavenly' love for the soul of the other and the common striving for purely physical satisfaction (this distinction, advocated byPlato's Socrates, had its effects for a long time, e.g. it reached into the tradition of novel writing, see below). Prominent amongst the texts are the brilliant discussions on eroticism (id epomxd, td erotikd) in Plato's Symposium and Phaedrus; they influenced these themes throughout the entire rest of antiquity, principally the extensive narrative or para-philosophical treatment of eroticism in the Second Sophistic and, facilitated by Platonism, in the Christian literature.The latter saw in Plato's ideas a pagan version of eros, which could be given a new spiritual expression as a result of either ignorance or deliberate misunderstanding. Plato reinterpreted the confusion of the lover and his longing for the loved one as a striving for metaphysical knowledge. In the Symposium, he has the comedy writer -» Aristophanes 3 narrate a myth:originally, human beings were double (just like Siamese twins), but the gods divided them into two halves each in order to curtail their exuberance. Therefore, eros is the search of individuals for their male or female counterpart; when this counterpart is found, the individual would like to spend the rest of his/her life with that person, being reunited into a whole now. This mythological model explains both the power of the erotic drive as well as the special happiness of those who can remain in a lifelong bond of φιλια (philia, 'friendship'). (2) Since the 4th cent. BC, a widespread plot structure can be found in comedy (in ~» Menander; Plautus;Terence; cf. Eubulus fr. 40 Kassel- Austin; Alexis fr. 20 Kassel-Austin): a young man, gripped by eros, falls in love with a young woman and/or rapes her; finally, this leads to marriage. Here, the power of eroticism is reinterpreted and employed for the socially sanctioned purposes of marriage, having children and the continuity of the -» oikos. D. Roman love life The Hellenistic epigram and Roman poetry, especially Catullus, theelegies of -» Propertius, -» Tibullus, -» Ovidius, also Virgilius (Eclogae and Aen. 4), probe the semi-paradox that the lover is constantly 'possessed' by a demonic power which causes a crippling paranoia (cf. Ter. Eun. 72f.; Catull. 85). Amor suppresses consilium, the clear reasoning of the upright citizen (Ter. Eun. 57f.; Prop. 1,1,6). The elegiac model of love, the 'war service of love' {militia amoris, cf. Ov. Am. 1 ,9: militat omnis amans), is contrasted with the traditional Roman core values - supported in epics - of political and military honour (cf. Prop. 2,1); it represents the Roman equivalent of the threat posed by Catullus' erotic poetry proved to be particularly effective. His reflections on parallels and differences between sexual love [amor) and the longing caused by the death of a brother, are amongst the most innovative and most moving poetic renditions of the theme (Catull. 65; 68; cf. also Catull. 72,3f.). Ovid's Ars amatoria provides concrete instructions for an intimate life with the respective opposite sex: Book 1-2 for men, Book 3 for women. In this didactic poetry, which La. is part of the tradition of pornographic manuals (Philaenis), the play (Indus) of love is given rules. In the erotodidaxis of Roman (cf. Ov. Am. 1,4; Tib. 1,4) and later Greek literature (cf. Ach.Tat. 1,9-11; Alciphron; Aristaenetus), eroslamor is no longer an overpowering, irrational force, but an art (τεχνη, techne; ars) the tactics of which one can learn. A special place in ancient erotic literature is taken up by Longus' 'Daphnis and Chloe'. This novel abandons the convention of love at first sight and thus gains space for new topics: the growth of love and sexuality between two teenagers as well as the relationship between human constructs of eros and the practices of nature. II. Art The following article provides an overview of research, the inventory of motifs and representations of eroticism in the fine arts of the Greeks and Romans. Due to the complexity of the subject matter, no general or literary references in relation to individual points can be given; in various details, the article is indebted to the works in the bibliography below. A. Definition Eroticism as a fundamental expression of human communication pervades all manifestations and relationship forms of love. Eroticism, derived from -» eros (schoc;. EpocJ, encompasses the spiritual and physical, is the spiritual-psychological development of sexuality, plays consciously or unconsciously with physical charms. In Latin amor, the phenomenon is only partly covered; the facets of meaning in libido (pleasure, charm, desire, lechery) subsume an eroticism that is closely connected with -» sexuality. Here, the latter is understood to mean sexuality without erotic complications in the totality of all modes of behaviour which are related to the sexual act/sexual gratification in human beings and animals. In contrast to the sexuality of an animal, human eroticism does not exclusively serve the purpose of procreation, but as a component of personality is oriented towards the physical as well as the spiritual-psychological. The ability of human beings to act both in a spiritual-psychological and in a physical-sensual way, forbids on the one hand using 'eroticism' and 'sexuality' as synonymous, but permits on the other hand to conceptually exchange both terms because of the parallelism of eroticism and sexuality.Eroticism can belong to -> pornography, which primarily deals with sexual acts as they are portrayed today in literature, photography and film. B. State of research Research on eroticism in Greek and Roman art demonstrates a concentration in certain areas:anthropology, sociology, religion, ancient texts (s. I above), surviving monuments (fine art), history of reception. Examinations of individual topics are predominant, works providing an overview are rare. Some publications do not give exact descriptions of what makes a representation erotic, instead they offer a time-specific interpretation/current research analysis which, at a secondary level, is based on the sculptural or pictorial work and evaluates it in a way that supports the intended reading. Based on a difficult selection of images, any overall treatment of eroticism must consider the scale from moderately erotic to lacking decency because this very juxtaposition of openly expressed and sublimi- nally operating sensuality creates a basis for the stimulation which the ambivalent term eroticism refers to. The basic experience oferoticism, which primarily occurs as a result of looking, feeling and touching, is based on the biologically attractive; this can, but need not, be beautiful. Any contact with erotic images depends on personal erotic sensibility. Written as well as verbal expressions regarding eroticism betray individual perception. An absolute, neutral consideration of eroticism is impossible. Most of the investigations into eroticism discuss Greekand Roman monuments of the Mediterranean basin together, which leads to improper generalizations. Things Greek cannot be transferred without reservations to things Roman although there are threads of tradition leading from things Greek to things Roman. All erotica ofancient Italy are to be evaluated before the background that the development of art there in the ist millennium BC largely rests on the interaction with different cultures, most of all the Greek. Together with Hellenism, Rome also adopted erotic art, combined it with its own approach and developed it further. C. Basic motifs Eroticism has basic motifs which are determined less by the relevant culture than by the reception on the part of the viewer who, moulded by education and guided by religion, views things according to his/her predisposition, dependent on and specific to the respectivegender, and who is psychologically sensual and can be sexually stimulated in a physical sense. The following motifs are characteristic of Greek and Roman images even though they do not consistently correspond: Nudity; interplay between nudity and being clothed: frequently, for men, there is a coat where the edge follows an arc under his genitals and, for women, a robe leaving part or all of her breast uncovered;furthermore, transparent materials over prominent parts of the body and erogenous zones. Pose: a woman/a man is presented in three-quarter view in a reclining pose, which inevitably evokes a sensual understanding of physicality. An arm moved back over the head brings about an association of relaxation, comfort,sleep, opening up to a person opposite and leads the viewer's gaze to the body. Rear view: the curved buttock is deliberately provocative. Erection: sexual arousal is shown. Posture and eye contact:woman/man or youth/man approach each other in the course of which they may establish intimately longing eye contact. Dance: soft ortemperamental dancing steps have an erotic effect. Performance: acrobatic jumps/tricks favour sexual desires. Chase: the interested male, often with an erect penis, chases a youth or a woman. Resistance: playful withdrawal by the wooed/desired one intensifies the longing of the person opposite. Embrace: a heterosexual couple/homosexual pair of men embrace each other intimately.Kiss of a pair (woman and man or youth and man respectively). Manual touch: erotic-sexual stimulation of the partner by touching/stroking of theprimary and secondary sexual organs. Sexual union: heterosexual couples have frontal or dorsal (a tergo) intercourse. Various other coitus positions, also fellatio and cunnilingus, occur between two persons or in a group. Thigh intercourse: a man rubs his genitals between the thighs of his partner. Self-gratification: male masturbation is shown. Auxiliary objects: jewellery on bare skin, loose strands in otherwise well-styled hair and rich hair all indicate female attractiveness. Certain gestures are to be ascribed to the group of basic erotic motifs as lesser classification units which, dependent on the pictorial content, can be read as erotic codes ( -> Gestures). Exemplary: if a hand touches the point of the chin of the desired opposite person, it signals consent; an arm stretched out towards a partner means that sexual animation is approved of or that sensual desire is rejected; if a woman's hand takes holds of the corner of a robe with the tips of her fingers, it creates a coquettish setting. D. Representations The basic motifs of eroticism listed under C. run through reality and myths with varying intensity in a rich range of themes. They occur amongst gods, heroes, human beings, mythical creatures, animals, plants, even in the area of death. The context of a representation can co-determine or cause its erotic effect. Erotic figures of Greek mythology reappear manifold in the Roman one, which itself produced hardly any new mythological figures of primary erotic characterization. An individual person (goddess/god, woman/man, heroine/hero)may have an erotic effect by being partly covered or nude, even if the latter imparts heroic qualities: ideal -» nudity does not preclude sensual perception. Free-standing sculptures (Roman copy after Greek original and Roman creation) are a source of erotic signals (nude body surface, see-through robe, narrow breast band). Parts of coats cover the thighs of seated women in a way that emphasizes thepubic area. Unrealistic robe formations stress the erotic. In the case of the deities -» Priapus, -» Aphrodite/ Venus and -» Dionysus/Bacchus, eroticism is tangible most frequently. Priapus, with exaggerated displays of erections, becomes thequintessence of the erotic-sexual. Around Aphrodite/Venus, vulgar eroticism only occurs within the circle of her admirers from the milieu of prostitutes, and around Dionysus/ Bacchus, it is confined to his followers. Thus, gross eroticism is not a theme directly associated with Aphrodite/Venus and Dionysus/Bacchus. In mythology, the thiasos of Dionysus exhibits the erotic-sexual image content most with significantly more pairs engaged inintercourse than among Bacchus'entourage in Roman monuments. Randy -» Satyrs and -♢ Sileni, most represented in Greek vase painting, are depicted less lecherously in Roman art, e.g. on sarcophagus reliefs, although their sexual interest in their companions seems just as carnal as that of their Greek counterparts. It can be deduced from systematic investigations that the -» Pans in Roman art are clearly erotically superior to the Satyrs (one should take note, e.g., of their activities with goats). Roman Dionysiac representations show sensually more restrained images than their Greek equivalents. The Satyrs, popular in Greek art, though theycan only be called erotic with reservations, who masturbate alone or in a group, are not shown in Roman art; there, one can find dwarf-like, deformed or old men instead, with excessively large penises. -» Hercules, as a protagonist of the male world of heroes, offers erotic representations of his amorous adventures. -* Leda,seduced by Zeus in the shape of a swan, is a popular material for eroticism in Roman art. The entire realm of heroes offers significantly more erotic facets, though. Eroticism in 'everyday' life depicts especially scenes at banquets. Some images depict -» hetaerae at drinking orgies in sensual body presentations withmoderate eroticism, many present hetaerae or prostitutes and men during erotic-sexual interaction(courting, kiss, foreplay, coitus), arranged as a pair situation or group activity. These monuments depict women during performances for the sexual animation of symposiasts, for example dancing with imitations of male genitals. It is not always possible to determine whether an erotic act is taking place at a drinking orgy or in a brothel. Negotiations between a prostitute and her suitor, expressed with a purse held by the man, are only found on Attic vase paintings. While Attic vessels (end of 6th cent./ist quarter of 5th cent. BC) are rich in direct erotica, the vase painting of Southern Italy (end of 5th cent./4th cent. BC), which was influenced by Greek art, only portrays modest lovemaking activities. There are no Greek wall paintings containing eroticism that can be evaluated. Roman-Campanian wall paintings (istcent. AD) from Pompeii clearly display erotica; they decorated private houses, baths and brothels. Reliefs on lamps and terra sigillata of the entire im- perium romanum offer numerous coitus representations. In the Greek and Roman world, all female partners in images of eroticism are to be regarded as prostitutes: enhancing men's quality of life, they guarantee those sensual pleasures for men which are based on a consensus between prostitution and social norms. Some representations strikingly reflect women being disadvantaged and, at times, violence is eroticized. In Greek and Roman art, artistically rendered love acts follow similar arrangements of frontal and dorsal intercourse while lying down, squatting or standing. There are pictures of couples where the woman carries out fellatio on the man. A statistical evaluation may reveal that sexual intercourse in a standing position occurs more often on Greek monuments than on Roman ones. Sexual fore- play appears less varied in Roman than in Greek erotica. Women, painted on Attic vases as desirable beauties (as individuals, to be associated with a private picture), are missing in Roman art, likewise images of women in obscene performances during drinking orgies. Brothel scenes in Roman art exclusively show coitus, fellatio, rarely cunnilingus. The homosexual love scene, a reflection of -* paederasty, on Attic vases (6th/5th cents. BC) presents a motif repertoire similar to that of heterosexual relations between couples, i.e. it shows eroticism as being sexually congruent. Roman art shows love between men only occasionally. Greek vase paintings with masturbating men do exist, but there are no equivalents in Roman art. The penis appears as an independent, often winged object which, on religious and mythological monuments of the everyday world, is the epitome of an omnipresent potency, while the combinations of the phallus with other elements, forming absurd images, are more diverse in Roman than in Greek art. However, phallus birds (phallus head on bird body) occur more often in Greek art. Phallic symbolism, associated with manifestations of carnal love, sexual desires and pictorial beauty, can be received as erotic when viewed. Extreme sexual situations are documented in Greek vase painting (6th cent. BC): animals in intercourse with mythical creatures or human beings. Such images of superficially erotic nuances with humorous to satirical elaboration are hardly equivalent to the brutal scenes on Roman lamp reliefs where a four-legged creature copulates with a woman. Eroticism in the area of death becomes visible in women on Greek grave stelae where physical beauty combines with passing gifts and eye contact between those saying farewell. -> Sirens and -» Sphinx, in some Greek vase pictures to be interpreted as erotic death demons, are only partially equivalent to Roman sphinxes with voluptuous busts (sarcophagus and architectural decoration). Occasionally, developments from Greek to Roman iconography of eroticism are concretizations. A lecherous Greek Satyr in a vase painting, who longingly creeps up on Dionysus' sleeping companion, becomes a servant of Bacchus in a Roman sarcophagus relief who suppresses his sexual interest and leads his master to the slumbering Ariadne. Often, reception patterns and paths of tradition can only be recognized associatively. Motif traditions elucidated by scholarly knowledge are rare and can only be documented by great research efforts. The occasionally expressed view that the pictorial language of eroticism developed from Greek simplicity to Roman diversity cannot be maintained because turbulent orgies full of drastic love acts in the middle of a -» kline, lamps and drinking vessels on Attic vases are not a suitable pattern for quietly reclined, almost featureless couples in a row on Roman terra sigillata. Without hair-splitting hypotheses, Graeco-Hellenistic mosaics cannot be made into models for erotica in Roman mosaics. Statements regarding a development from Greek to Roman image concepts in eroticism can at best be made via statistical investigations. A glance at all preserved reliefs shows: Roman glyptic articles are more numerous than Greek ones. The most extensive groups of Roman artefacts are lamps and terracotta utensils. Eroticism on Roman stone reliefs (decorative disc/brothel sign) or metal tokens (means of payment in brothels) is without Greek parallels. The following observations are applicable to all representations of eroticism in Greek and Roman art: there is more subdued sensuality than vulgar carnality whereby the ambiguous basic tendency (soft tenderness, demanding desire) and thus the complex effects of eroticism are recognised. Eroticism attaches itself firmly to religion and deity. Eroticism, as a matter-of-fact component of life is rarely hidden. Nevertheless, in images of heterosexual couples, wives are never portrayed, but usually hetaerae/prostitutes, even in a wall painting in the living area of a Pompeian married couple or on a vessel amongst the household utensils of married Athenians. The social acceptance of extramarital love-interests varied in the centuries from which the pictorial media containing eroticism have survived. The erotic art of antiquity expresses primeval human experiences of manifold passions by way of many formal languages that are subject to workshop-specific and period-related style criteria. Pornography; Sexuality; -» Erotica 1 C.Johns, Sex or Symbol.